the north = cold/snow

[Midorikawa]

Do be careful. A charming bit of information about extreme cold. Under about -20 or so bones don't fracture, they shatter. mrDrone sat on the qdeck of his barracks in Great Lakes naval Training Center and watched a guy slip on the ice, a crew of corpsmen come out to pick him up, and one of them wipe out as well. Major reconstructive surgery ensues. The recruit was released, they couldn't repair his ankle enough to qualify for boot camp. The corpsman had his arm in a frame for several months and ended up with all sorts of screws and plates. That was the day that the thermometer broke, it doesn't go below -30. Apparently it was -40 before the wind chill

/me snuggles the cat and a hot cocoa at the thought

Whoa...That's enough to scare me inside for the rest of winter. O_o

[protege]

Last winter was actually pretty mild. At least here. Sure, we got several days of intense snow, but for the most part...wasn't too bad. There was about a foot or so on the driveway (twice), but at least there wasn't any ice in-between the snow-jobs Of course, right around Christmas...it was 70F. No snow, and warm enough I could drive the MG (which doesn't have a heater, BTW) in shorts. That didn't last too long--about a week later, it was in the 30s.

[Mike Taylor]

The last time it snowed down this far South was 1977.

But yeah, when I lived in Chicago the city only shut down for blizzard conditions... and never for more than a day or two. I remember coming into work downtown and encountering snowdrifts taller than me.

[EricKei]

Heeheehee

We do have kinda the opposite problem the during the rest of the year, tho -- It's pretty much always humid, even in Winter (makes windbreakers, or, as we call them, "winter coats", less effective) --

It's not even "summer", per se, anymore, and we still get heat. There have been days within the past WEEK where I've had to "let the heat out of my car" first thing in the AM before I leave the house >_<

A teacher in college once remarked that "Back home [in Japan], we have FOUR seasons! Here, you only have Summer and Winter!" -- I wish she was joking. In an unusually warm year, that becomes "Summer and February". We do usually drop below freezing 1-5 days a year, tho. That, in and of itself, should give you an idea of what we laughingly call "Winter".

I swear we don't really have Fall, either. The trees all seem to be either green or dead, no pretty changing colors in-between. Hmph.

[Jester]

What's snow?

The consensus seemed to be that the moment you cross the Pennsylvania border, everything southward is a radiant vision of sun-kissed palm trees swaying in a tropical breeze.

Amusingly, I live in a place that IS a radiant vision of sun-kissed palm trees swaying in a tropical breeze. That being said, there are times it does get cold down here. Sure, it's only 40s and 50s F, which is cold for this place, and while northerners will scoff while reading this, keep in mind that when the wind comes off the Atlantic, with no land anywhere around us to slow it down, it is colder than you would think. I have had people from very northern states (New York, Michigan, Minnesota) bitch about how cold it was a couple times here.

I find it amusing that people get pissed about it being cold here. Yes, even the Florida Keys do have a winter. A short winter, lasting only a few weeks, but a winter nonetheless. Yet more proof that you should always check the weather report before you go somewhere.

I find it amusing and surprising that people bitch about it when it rains down here. "It's the Florida Keys, it's supposed to be warm and sunny!" Hello, it's the tropics. Thus, it rains. A lot. Pretty much by definition.

I went to school in Buffalo, so I'm kind of blasé about snow.

Ah, my poor ex-roommate Space Cadet. He's originally from Atlanta, and spent several years in Key West. A while back, he moved back to Atlanta, and somehow met and became involved with a girl from Buffalo....and moved there last March. And now, his first real Buffalo winter approaches.

I know it can get cold in Georgia. I know this. But this is a Southern boy who has never really dealt with THAT kind of cold, and my roommate Mr. Anti-Social and I are giggling trying to picture his face as he realizes what his love and/or lust have gotten him into as the winter gets deeper and colder up there.

We are considering sending him an amusing care package, including liquid sunshine in a can, tropical postcards, sunglasses, etc. Just to remind him of where he is, and where he isn't.

[Andara Bledin]

We do usually drop below freezing 1-5 days a year, tho. That, in and of itself, should give you an idea of what we laughingly call "Winter".

I swear we don't really have Fall, either. The trees all seem to be either green or dead, no pretty changing colors in-between. Hmph.

We have the same temperature situation, but without so much humidity. You can keep your humidity, thanks.

That whole color change thing is mostly due to the length of the days, so you'll get that more spectacularly further north. That's why Vermont has such a spectacular fall season. We do get that a bit some here, but it's more subdued.

^-.-^

[EricKei]

liquid sunshine in a can

I am assuming that this "sunshine" is comprised partially or wholly of boozeahol. ^_^ I will very disappointed if this turns out not to be the case.

[BarbieGirl]

I've spent the last 18 winters in western washington and all the schools close down for an inch or so of snow, we were always so bored those days, coming from Utah where we actually had to walk home from school in a foot of snow in a blizzard. Although last year was crazy and we got 8" to around a foot of snow. I'm curious as to what this year will bring as we just moved to Boise, the last monday of september it was 90* and this last monday it was 50* even had a touch of snow over the weekend or so I hear, I was in Utah park city with snow and rain there (YUCK!!) I can handle rain or snow by themselves but not so much together.

[tamezin]

I have had a handfull of people already freak out about the cold...Hello this is Montana. Sure, this part has the milder winter (southern/bottom area of the state) but it does get cold and snowy here. The fact that people freak out about this....makes me sad for them.

Funny...I was just talking to my daughter about Montana yesterday. I grew up there but I have lived in the mid-west for 20 years. The first two years I lived here, I never wore a winter coat, as far as I was concerned it never got cold enough for one.

Now after so long, I freeze all the time. My daughter asked me what I did when I lived in Montana. I tried to explain it was different because I was used to it. She just couldn't understand how anyone could get used to 20 below 0 or even just 0 degree'd winters.

She wants to go on vacation to MT in the winter so she can see for herself, I told her no, cause if we take a winter vacation, I want to be home before the spring thaw.



Stay warm

[Jester]

I am assuming that this "sunshine" is comprised partially or wholly of boozeahol. ^_^ I will very disappointed if this turns out not to be the case.

You are going to be very disappointed, then.

First of all, I called it the wrong thing. It's not liquid sunshine, it's instant sunshine. In a can.

In other words, an empty can with a clever label. Basically a gag gift, that a lot of tourists buy as souvenirs of their time in the tropics.

Also a great way to remind someone that lives in the Great White North how truly awesome it is down here.

[Phantomgrift]

I admit, I have always imagined up to a few years ago that the States doesnt have a real winter, despite having seen all the Home Alone movies and all that with snow, heh.

Up here in Calgary, its not unusual to have snow in july and then be BBQing on christmas in shorts on the deck though

You forget and I can beg to differ...
Alaska is part of the U.S. and further north than Alberta.

Man... I miss having actual winters up there.
Where Christmas is six feet of snow in two days!

[AccountingDrone]

(Although Buffalo has an unfair reputation for winter weather. Rochester gets more snow than Buffalo every year, and Syracuse routinely beats both of them. It isn't even that cold there, about the same as NYC where I grew up, because it's right on the lake and that moderates the temperature. Yet when I told people I was moving there, everyone was saying "Man, you're gonna freeze." Come on guys, it's not Alaska, or even Montana. I'm not sure what it is, maybe it's that Buffalo has an NFL team, so people all over the country can put on their TVs and see 80,000 maniacs sitting in the stands with snow up to their tuchuses. Thing is, the stadium isn't even in Buffalo, it's in Orchard Park, south of the city, and it does snow more down there.)

Actually, the problem is Nunavit exporting snow down to the US and it comes across the Canadian border in a few areas. Nothing like tundra wind whistling down across the great lakes, picking up moisture and dumping it on the first available land.

I'm from a small town between Rochester and Buffalo, on the lake side of the foothills to the Appalachians so the wind hits there and dumps snow. It isnt Rochester, Buffalo or Syracuse getting the snow, it is actually the southern tier that gets slammed. I used to sled out of a third story window regularly. my brother and I used to hollow out the resulting snowbank, with the final tunnel end being the servants door in the basement so we had a 'secret entrance'

Damn I miss being 8 years old...

Whoa...That's enough to scare me inside for the rest of winter. O_o

they make slip on ice cleats, sort of football spikes on rubbers that are good on ice.

/me hands out cups of cocoa, you have to get your own cat to purr at you

[Crossbow]

Actually, the problem is Nunavit exporting snow down to the US and it comes across the Canadian border in a few areas. Nothing like tundra wind whistling down across the great lakes, picking up moisture and dumping it on the first available land.

I'm from a small town between Rochester and Buffalo, on the lake side of the foothills to the Appalachians so the wind hits there and dumps snow. It isnt Rochester, Buffalo or Syracuse getting the snow, it is actually the southern tier that gets slammed. I used to sled out of a third story window regularly. my brother and I used to hollow out the resulting snowbank, with the final tunnel end being the servants door in the basement so we had a 'secret entrance'

Damn I miss being 8 years old...

Sounds about right. I was born and spent some of my childhood north of Oneida Lake near Syracuse, then moved to the previously mentioned Orchard Park. Both snow belts. After getting out of WNY, I moved to Euclid, an eastern suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. Yep, another snow belt (not as bad as Chardon, but close enough.) The fun is the whole Lake Effect issue. As AD said, you get that cold air moving across a relatively warm (read non-frozen) lake, and it picks up all sorts of moisture. Once it hits the dry air over land, it's coming down, like it or not. Four to six inches an hour is not unheard of. Good luck keeping the roads clear then.

Luckily, right now my house is close enough to Lake Erie that the lake effect actually skips over us and falls further south. It also doesn't get anywhere near as cold as when I lived near Syracuse (-40F for a week straight)....

[Jester]

See, it's stories like that that make me so freakin' glad that I went to Arizona State University (originally my second choice), and not my first choice of Syracuse University.

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate the cold?

[Pagan]

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate the cold?

You and me both. It's about 55F right now around noon and I. Am. Not. Happy. It's been up to 64F, but I think that was around midnight. >.<

As far as I'm concerned, you can always take off enough to get cool. You can't put on enough to get warm.